From the archive, 8 April 1987: Younger gives no comfort to troubled Westland

The Defence Secretary, Mr George Younger, refused yesterday to clarify the future of Westland, Britain's only helicopter manufacturer, which is threatened with up to 2,000 redundancies because of lack of orders.

Mr Younger did nothing to allay the fears of Westland's 8,000-strong workforce when he attended a special ceremony at the firm's headquarters in Yeovil. A Commons statement outlining the Ministry of Defence's future helicopter needs is expected tomorrow, the last day before Parliament's Easter recess. Ministers are still highly sensitive about Westland following last year's controversy which led to the Cabinet resignations of Mr Michael Heseltine and Mr Leon Brittan.

If the statement is delivered tomorrow it will arrive on a very quiet day in the parliamentary calendar, when many MPs will be returning to their constituencies for the Easter break.

Yesterday Mr Younger was divulging no details and promised only to make his statement some time before Easter. "I'm afraid that I cannot give the decisions at this stage," he said.

Mr Younger, in Yeovil to attend the introductory roll-out ceremony of Westland's new EH101 helicopter, offered some hope to the firm's workforce by saying that the Government wanted Westland to stay up with technological developments in the helicopter industry. "We want to sustain a British helicopter industry in this country for the 1990s and beyond," he said.

Westland is facing a dire shortage of orders which threatens the jobs of up to 2,000 people at Yeovil and Weston-super-Mare. All existing work at Westland factories runs out at the end of 1988 and the new EH101, which Westland is developing in partnership with the Italians' Agusta, will not roll-off the production lines until 1992.

Mr Younger's statement is expected to include a £400 million package of orders, including contracts for the EH101 and short-term orders for Sea King or Lynx helicopters. There is also some speculation that Mr Younger will signal Britain's withdrawal from the five-nation European NH-90 helicopter project. But the Lynx and Sea King orders will not be enough to prevent Westland cutting production and jobs.

Westland's deputy chairman, Sir John Treacher, said on BBC TV's Breakfast Time yesterday that 2,000 job losses was "a figure which has been bandied about for a very long time and it may be near the mark, but we have to wait to see what the secretary of state says."

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